When Pharrell Williams strolled into the Grammys wearing an oversize Royal Canadian Mountie hat, it immediately became the Internet's favorite Grammy-night accessory. He also launched the official trend of the night on the red carpet and inside the Staples Center – lots and lots of hats.

The song of the summer – Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" – was a no-brainer for a record of the year nod when the 2014 Grammy nominations were announced Friday night during a live concert at the Nokia Theater in L.A.

But Miley Cyrus, whose headline-making songs "We Can't Stop" and "Wrecking Ball" were eligible, was shut out of the major categories.

"Music is about ... connecting different people, and building bridges and breaking the rules," the rapper tells CNN. "If it's not compelling, and it's not complex and it's not interesting, then what are we doing it for? So I think that's the right move."

"I needed to do something that was going to be interesting like that, and shake things up, and jump out of the box," he said. "I'm really proud of it, and I hope the world hears it and enjoys it."

If the song was intended to get people talking, it's been a staggering success.

But Brad Paisley's "Accidental Racist," a duet with LL Cool J on his new album Wheelhouse, out Tuesday, is also hugely controversial.

Styled as a conversation between a white Southerner and a black New Yorker, the song features the two singers having a charged debate about race – and features Paisley's character walking into a coffee shop wearing a shirt with a Confederate flag on it.

Without question, the Oct. 9 episode of NCIS: L.A. is the mother of all mysteries.

While the team tracks down a suspect in a casino, four women – portrayed by the lead actors' real-life mothers – are playing poker.

When executive producer Shane Brennan e-mailed the CBS drama’s stars with the idea, "I thought it was a joke," Chris O’Donnell says. "When I found out he was serious, I was excited to call my mom. I knew this would be the biggest deal for her."

It was a thrill for the actors as well. "It was fun getting to work and seeing her in hair and makeup," Eric Christian Olsen says of having his mother, Jeanne, on-set.